The School Advocacy Playbook: How to Advocate for Your Black Child When the System Isn't Seeing Them
I was a Black kid in Lincoln, Nebraska, going to schools where just about everybody else was white. Years later I was the principal on the other side of the desk, so I know school buildings from both sides.
The School Advocacy Playbook gives you the words, emails and steps to stand up for your child at school without getting written off as the difficult parent. Notes from the principal's side show you what's happening on the staff side while you work.
- Reading the classroom before there's a problem
- The start-of-year teacher meeting, with what to say
- Talking to teachers about bias without putting them on the defensive
- The day your child reports being treated unfairly
- Running a meeting and leaving with a plan in writing
- When to go to the principal or the district, with a letter you can send
- Telling one teacher's problem apart from a schoolwide pattern
- Suspensions, keeping records that hold up, and schools with no Black teachers
- Taking care of your child at home while you work the system
- A quick reference on your basic federal rights
I'm an educator, and I'm not a lawyer. The rights section points you to the basic federal rules and tells you when it's time to get legal help.
25 pages, instant PDF download.
About Michael Gaither
I'm a Black man who was adopted and raised by a white family in Lincoln, Nebraska. I spent 30 years in education as a teacher and a principal, and 13 of those years running my own executive leadership coaching business for school principals. My book is I Was Your Black Child: What White Parents Raising Black Children Need to Hear Before It's Too Late.
